Solvay targets “biodegradable by design” polymers for future hair care products
10 Oct 2023 | Solvay
Solvay is chemically modifying polymers to bring specific benefits desired by consumers. Margot Bon, research and innovation project manager, speaks about how polymers in hair care products are used for styling across hair types to achieve desired results. Within these solutions, the chemicals company focuses on sourcing from natural feedstocks.
This is Sabina Waldeck for Personal Care Insights.
Joining me today is Margot Bon, Research and Innovation Project Manager at Solvey.
Welcome, Margo.
Yeah, welcome, Sabine.
Nice to meet you.
So let's kick it off with our first question.
What role do polymers play in hair styling products?
Yeah, polymer, I would say are mostly known for decades as biology modifiers or ingredients acting on the biology of beauty formulation, but also known as a conditioning agent.
When it comes to styling, I would, I would divide the market into categories of solution, the one that we can call a chemical, styling and the other one, physical styling, and the polymers will belong to the second part.
So they are mostly known in styling as fin farmers because they will act either as a mechanical frame on the surface of hair or as a humidity shield, and we know that water can be the enemy when it comes to styling.
So, polymers and styling, they will bring different kinds of benefits.
It can be straightening for people having curly hair who wants to straighten them.
Using shampoo, Yvonne, or whatever the format.
They can also be used as an anti-freeze agent, but also if we extend, we can think about the opposite.
People, consumer having, straight hair who wants to have very nice curls, or people with natural curl hair want them very defined.
So all in all, polymers and styling mostly act on the surface of hair to better define it, with a very nice discipline.
And then kind of with polymers, what sets your hair care solutions apart from others on the market.
Solve has been known for quite some time now in terms of the knowledge we have in designing polymer solution for health care market.
We have the NRA on how to fine tune, for example, the size of the polymer, how to chemically modify polymers to bring some particular benefits, some particular properties.
And, what we know today is that on the market, most of the solutions, to be performance are synthetic.
So, at Solve in our brand, Nanola, we offer polymers that are, not only naturally derived, so extracted from, , natural plant or natural source from the planet, but that are also, biodegradable.
So playing with the natural feedstock that we can find on the planet, such as guar plant, for example, we can capitalize on the beauty of nature to provide the natural beauty for the consumer.
When I say natural beauty, here, not hard styling, you know, not like fixative gel, but we will talk more about what we can call soft styling, meaning no flakes, no residues, no stickiness, no dullness, something quite natural, not detrimental to either the aesthetic or the sensory attributes, sensory experience that a consumer expect in a product providing styling properties.
And in addition to that, I would say that at Solve, we like to adopt a multi-approach strategy, so we provide a multi multi-functional ingredients, meaning that the polymer that we supply for styling benefit will not only help to discipline the hair but will as bring some other properties, some other attributes like conditioning.
To help with the detangling, for example, or film forming properties as for improved softness.
And then with these products, and within your product range, what advancements are you working on right now in regard to hair care solutions?
Yes.
So I would say in the past 2 years, SOLVER has dedicated a lot of resources internally and also working with external partners in developing a model that we can call biodegradable by design.
Meaning that from the very early stages of development, we design a new ingredients that would be biodegradable.
It's not a step that we check at the end of the development process since , honestly, implemented from the very early stages in our innovation project.
And this is also part of the maternal range of products, so all the future launches belonging to the maternal range will be designed to belong to either category A or category B on the Beauty Biodex score.
So the beauty biodex score is a score that was created by a solve expert to measure the level of degradation, biodegradation of beauty care ingredients by microorganism over a several, over a period of time.
So it is, based on, , existing regulation.
So for example, the OECD guidelines and more specifically the OECD 301F and 302D.
So the new launches, there will be new launches to come and there will be the results, the output of this approach, biodegradable by design that will provide both performance because this is what consumer expects, but also minimal impact for the planet.
So with the current deep investigation on several kinds of sourcing, we would like to extract the most of the planet but providing as performance.
So our current investigation now as on the other natural feedstock to meet the consumer demand for performance, but as improve the biodegradability.
So in this kind of looking forward, looking to the future, where do you see the future of polymers using haircut products going?
I would say no compromise on the efficacy.
So consumers are very aware now of the, of the impact that they can, , they and their mode of consumption can have on the planet, but they are not willing, and I totally understand, they are not willing to compromise on the efficacy of the product they use.
So currently we are as working on the future development to offer, for example, long-lasting performance.
So it's great to show the benefit of a polymer at T0 and the initial time, but it's great to show that it can persist over several days, for example.
So to be aligned with , with people's mode of living now, mode of life, that would be more, quite a dynamic and we have to align with that.
Also, we are working on the resistance to wash out.
So again, we like a product that is efficient and that can resist over several shampoos, for example, to minimize the, the consumption, the amount of product that is used, which is also very aligned with the, with the consumer expectation in terms of being less impactful on the planet.
And I would say along with a clean environmental profile, there is a rising demand for modern and smart solutions.
So with this new brand, Naternal, we try to provide a solutions that are customized for all types of help from every ethnicity from all over the world for all levels of damage and also all types of needs.
Do you have anything else to add that you feel like we haven't covered today?
I would say go and visit our website if you have more questions.
It's pretty structured and there is a, a greater level of information and stay tuned for all survey of future launches.
Margo, thank you for joining Personal Care Insights.
Yeah, thank you for hosting me today.
